MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Indian company to begin Bolivian iron-ore exports; a million tons the first year

Jindal’s managing director, Naveen Jindal

India’s Jindal Steel & Power plans this year to export 1 million tons of iron ore concentrate from Bolivia’s El Mutun mine, the firm said. Following on some problems that have been overcome, exports will begin in March reported Jindal Bolivia’s communications manager, Eduardo Prudencio.

“Exports will begin in March. They’ll be the first iron-ore exports from Bolivia. One million tons will be exported during the following twelve months,” Prudencio said.

The information was confirmed by Jindal’s managing director, Naveen Jindal, who arrived in the eastern Bolivian province of Santa Cruz a few days ago to inaugurate construction of the firm’s offices in Puerto Suarez, (close to the Brazilian border) Prudencio added.

Among the projects scheduled for this year, Jindal will continue repairing a 100 kilometres road to connect El Mutun with a canal linking the Paraguay and Parana rivers, as well as with a major river port that will provide access to the Atlantic Ocean.

Also programmed is be construction of one of six plants at a steel complex in Puerto Suarez that will process 50% of the ore from the mine, which holds a total of 40 billion tons of mineral reserves.

Naveen Jindal promised authorities and civic leaders in Puerto Juarez that the company will invest 600 million US dollars over the next two years and that steel production in Bolivia will begin in 2014, Prudencio said.

A 2007 contract with President Evo Morales’ government gave Jindal the right to mine roughly half of El Mutun, with the company pledging at that time to invest a total of 2.1 billion USD in the project.

Jindal initially promised to invest 600 million USD over three years but the company had only spent 12 million USD through the first quarter of 2010, saying that it lacked sufficient land for its operations.

Bolivia’s Mining Ministry fined Jindal in April 2010 over investment delays by collecting the company’s 18 million USD performance bond.

However Jindal’s problems have been “overcome” and it will furnish a new performance bond in the coming days, anticipated Prudencio.